He will be hugely missed. If it's for welfare reasons to prolong his career maybe he could transition to lock for Georgia instead? Its less taxing than the backrow and players tend to play longer there.

Its for financial reasons then i guess there's nothing more to say other than good luck.

From my point of view he can still play for Georgia until the next WC (maybe at lock?) but you must respect his decision. Maybe a retiring match against the Oaks at Tbilisi?:) Great player and servant for his country!

Bogdan_DC wrote:From my point of view he can still play for Georgia until the next WC (maybe at lock?) but you must respect his decision. Maybe a retiring match against the Oaks at Tbilisi?:) Great player and servant for his country!

Nope he will not continue playing for Lelos any more. He will hold 1 final match and i hope it will be on Dinamo Arena against Oaks and 55,000+ spectators. He said that he would not play any other matches if Lelos won in Bucharest this year.

He announced that he will retire until he is in good shape to remember as great player and not as "he was great once". Good decision and best wishes for him for the rest of his life. I believe he can play for Toulon few years.

Mamuka Gorgodze - the greatest ever Georgian rugby player. It is hard to imagine our national team without him. A lot of thanks to him for being an outstanding player, a brilliant personality and a big patriot. Mamuka, we will miss your impressive performances. Good luck and happiness.

Big loss for Lelos, he's certainly an iconic player and he will be missed. However, he may be back for RWC 2019 for last run, it happened before with players who retired from national teams. I wish him luck, happiness and good health!

If you need to name 5 proposals for Hall of fame of Georgian rugby, who are the first in your mind? I have: Gorgodze, Zirakashvili, Tsabadze, Zedginidze and Kvirikashvili(i don't like him but his achievements are hard to ignore liking him or not).

On the rugby side of things, it's a blow for Georgia ahead of their North America tour. I'm pretty sure Nemsadze is out as well so lock could be a worry.

Gorgodze is a legend not just of Georgian rugby but of the sport itself IMO. Fans will remember him for years to come.

Bogdan_DC wrote:If you need to name 5 proposals for Hall of fame of Georgian rugby, who are the first in your mind? I have: Gorgodze, Zirakashvili, Tsabadze, Zedginidze and Kvirikashvili(i don't like him but his achievements are hard to ignore liking him or not).

- Mamuka Gorgodze - he is our georgian jonah lomu. he will be remembered as the graetest player ever to put on the georgian jersey.- Gia Labadze - a great, great, great player and person. what he did for georgia and toulon is just unbelievable.- Levan Tsabadze - no need for explanation here.- Goderzi Shvelidze & Dati Zirakashvili - Shvelidze is often underestimated, but he began bringing georgian players as zira to france and in that way helped iproving our players and gave many of our great warriors like zira the chance to become professional players. the one thing about zira: when he allready was a star player in france, earning a lot of money and could have even earned more if he stopped playing for georgia, he went out on the field in places like heusenstamm and played against teams as germany or portugal and represented georgia until the end. i think he also has to do something with many young georgian players getting signed by clermont academy and clermont academy visiting georgia.

Someone who maybe as a player wasn't as good as the lads above is Ilia Maisuradze. While I know that Georgians are very passionate about their Rugby, I do not think there is anyone more passionate about it than he is. As a player he gave all he had and as a coach he now does the same. He and his coaching team brought the Junior Lelos up to the highest level. He has contributed big league to our success.

datodato wrote: i think he also has to do something with many young georgian players getting signed by clermont academy and clermont academy visiting georgia.

For sure. Romania have good connection in Castres for example, because of our great former international Adrian Lungu who is part of their staff. Zirakashvili is your version of Ledesma because he is not only a good player but a really good coach in scrummaging also. I saw him working very well with young guys. Probably he will follow a career in coaching i guess.